1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supporting and transport apparatus for transporting and transferring of a disk, specifically between stations of an evacuable chamber of a vacuum plant which includes at least one movable disk support onto which the disk is to be deposited by means of the supporting and transport apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such disks may be for instance semiconductor disks which must pass a plurality of treatment steps within a vacuum plant. To this end the vacuum plant includes a plurality of treatment chambers for the semiconductor disks and a central evacuable distributing chamber into which the semiconductor disks are brought through locks and from which they are removed after the treatment. If a disk after the termination of its treatment in a treatment chamber is transported through the distribution chamber into the subsequent treatment chamber there exists in case of very sensitive treatments the danger that residual gases which are for instance needed for a treatment step in a treatment chamber reach and enter into a different treatment chamber such that they disturb the subsequent treatment to be made therein. There is, furthermore, a danger that particles which are stirred up at one of the treatments are dragged along during the transport into the subsequent chamber. It is also possible that particles from the surrounding environment can be brought into the distribution chamber by the not as yet treated semiconductor disks and settle when passing by on the partly already treated semiconductor disks such that a subsequently made treatment is detrimentally influenced thereby. In order to avoid such, an evacuable intermediate chamber is arranged between the distribution chamber and the at least one treatment chamber, and which is sealable by means of valves. The semiconductor disks do no longer come into contact with the distribution chamber between different treatment steps in a plurality of treatment chambers such that the danger of dragging residual gases or particles along can be substantially excluded.
A transport apparatus is located in the distribution chamber which is suitable to remove from a lock chamber ahead of the distribution chamber the disks of the magazine which disks are located in such magazine on top of each other, whereby this transport apparatus is preferably a robot arm moving under the disk. If now sealable intermediate chambers are present following the distribution chamber from which intermediate chambers only the further transporting into the treatment chambers is accomplished, a further transporting device must be present in the intermediate chambers which takes a respective disk over from the robot arm.